Peering is a voluntary interconnection of separate networks/autonomous systems (AS, that use separate routing tables within their network) for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the users of each network. An agreement by two or more networks to peer is instantiated by a physical interconnection of the networks and an exchange of routing information through the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing protocol (e.g. IETF RFC 4271). Peering involves two networks coming together to exchange traffic with each other freely, and for mutual benefit. This ‘mutual benefit’ is most often the motivation behind peering, which is often described solely by ‘reduced costs for transit services’.
The physical interconnections used for peering are categorized into two types: public peering—interconnection utilizing a multi-party shared switch fabric such as an Ethernet switch; and private peering—interconnection utilizing a point-to-point link between two parties. Public peering is accomplished across a Layer 2 access technology, generally called a shared fabric. These physical interconnections occur at a specific location where each carrier's equipment is co-located with the other carriers. At these locations, multiple carriers interconnect with one or more other carriers across a single physical port. Historically, public peering locations were known as network access points (NAPs); today they are most often called exchange points or Internet exchanges (“IXP”). Many of the largest exchange points in the world can have hundreds of participants, and some span multiple buildings and colocation facilities across a city.
Since public peering allows networks interested in peering to interconnect with many other networks through a single port, it is often considered to offer “less capacity” than private peering, but to a larger number of networks. Many smaller networks, or networks which are just beginning to peer, find that public peering exchange points provide an excellent way to meet and interconnect with other networks which may be open to peering with them. A few exchange points, particularly in the United States, are operated by commercial carrier-neutral third parties, which are critical for achieving cost-effective data center connectivity.
Private peering is the direct interconnection between only two networks, across a Layer 1 or 2 medium that offers dedicated capacity that is not shared by any other parties. Early in the history of the Internet, many private peers occurred across ‘telco’ provisioned SONET circuits between individual carrier-owned facilities. Today, most private interconnections occur at carrier hotels or carrier neutral colocation facilities, where a direct cross connect can be provisioned between participants within the same building, usually for a much lower cost than telco circuits. Most of the traffic on the Internet, especially traffic between the largest networks, occurs via private peering. However, conventional approaches to both public and private peering require the co-location of each carrier's network equipment.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems, apparatus, and methods that improve upon conventional approaches including the improved methods, system and apparatus provided hereby.